On Fri, 28 Dec 2012 16:11:33 -0500, Meyer wrote:

On 12/28/2012 3:01 PM, ESAD wrote:
On 12/28/12 2:47 PM, JustWait wrote:
On 12/28/2012 2:13 PM, Meyer wrote:
On 12/28/2012 10:28 AM, wrote:
On Friday, December 28, 2012 10:15:06 AM UTC-4, ESAD wrote:
On 12/28/12 8:55 AM, iBoaterer wrote:

In article , says...



On 12/27/2012 5:21 PM, GuzzisRule wrote:

On Thu, 27 Dec 2012 16:37:35 -0500, iBoaterer wrote:



In article ,

says...



On Thu, 27 Dec 2012 13:36:57 -0500, iBoaterer
wrote:



In article ,

says...



On Thu, 27 Dec 2012 12:18:23 -0500, iBoaterer
wrote:



In article ,

says...



On 12/27/12 11:01 AM, wrote:

On Thursday, December 27, 2012 10:15:18 AM UTC-4, ESAD
wrote:

On 12/27/12 8:59 AM, Eisboch wrote:











"GuzzisRule" wrote in message



...











Here ya go!







http://www.rvwholesalers.com/resourc...aptor_2012.pdf










Everything you want in one place. Keep clicking the down
arrow. This is



what's called a 'Toy Hauler'



fifth wheel.







---------------------------------------------------







Looks familiar. We had the 377-SE version. Went
"camping" once with it



and had the most miserable week of my life.







My daughter started it all. She and her husband were
into camping and



were purchasing a new travel trailer. She convinced
Mrs.E and I and my



older son and his wife to get a trailer as well for
"family" camping.



I saw it as a good excuse to get a new truck, so I bought
the Raptor Toy



Hauler along with a Ford 350 Diesel and had the fifth
wheel hitch



installed. I had a Harley at the time and figured the
toy hauler would



come in handy. My son bought a slightly smaller fifth
wheel and a Ford



250 with the V-10. We all picked up our new RV's the
same day at the



dealership.







My daughter made reservations for all of us for a week at
a campground



in New Hampshire that they visited often. I forget what
the name of it



is. I call it "Marty Moose Land". We all had sites
beside each other.



The trip to the campground was uneventful. The Ford
pulled the Raptor



with no problem and I thought this was going to be pretty
cool.







Well, that particular week in the mountains of New
Hampshire was the



hottest, most humid week I've spent anywhere. Big
thunderstorms every



afternoon kept us all huddled inside our respective RV's
with the AC



units running at full blast. When it stopped raining
and we ventured



outside, the mosquitoes were waiting to draw blood.







One humid, sultry afternoon, we were sitting at my son's
site trying to



have a beer while swishing away the bugs and
mosquitoes. His young



daughter was playing inside his fifth wheel. As we sat
talking, I



looked up and saw water seeping out of the storage area
door under the



master bedroom of the RV. Got up, opened the door, and
gallons of



water started pouring out. His daughter had plugged the
vanity sink in



the bedroom and had the faucets turned on full. It had
filled the sink



and was overflowing everywhere, soaking the carpets and
draining into



the storage area. I took off to find a hardware store
to get a wet



vac while the rest started sopping up the water.







Gracefully, the last day of our camping adventure
arrived. My son and



his family left, and then us by early afternoon. My
daughter and her



husband wanted to stay a little longer, so we said
goodbye and hit the



road.







By 8pm, I had just arrived home and backed the
fifth-wheel into it's



spot at our house when the phone rang. It was my
daughter. They had



just left the campsite, got a mile down the road and
their vehicle



snapped a tie rod. They were sitting on the side of a
busy road with a



broken SUV, their new, 28' travel trailer and two crying
kids.







So, dear old Dad heads back to the New Hampshire
mountains in his truck



to rescue them. Finally got back to their house by 2am,
towing the



trailer.



Their truck was put on a flatbed and taken to a repair
shop.







The next day I listed the Raptor "For Sale" in a couple
of the RV



classifieds. Sold it a few weeks later to a buyer in
Canada.







BTW, that wasn't our first attempt at trying the camping
scene. When I



first retired and we wintered in Florida, we thought it
would be fun to



make the trips back and forth in a RV. We tried a 37'
Pace Arrow class



A motorhome, a Chinook Glacier and a Dodge Sprinter RV.
Of the three,



I liked the Sprinter the most and we owned it the
longest, but we



eventually sold the Florida house and rarely used the
Sprinter. We



ended up selling it to a guy in Missouri who flew out and
drove it



home. He and his wife still send us email pictures of
their travels in



it.







Camping is great for some people. It's just not for
me. I'd much



rather live on a boat.



















We've been to Maine a few times. On one of those trips, we
rented an RV



and loaded it onto a ferry to take us to an island
campground for a few



days. The RV, the island, and so forth were fine, but the
island was



infested with biting bugs. They weren't mosquitoes, they
were much



bigger, and it was hot and humid, too. Misery most of the
time.







The next time we went to Maine, we stayed he







http://mainestayinn.com/







No annoying insects indoors or outdoors, beautiful rooms,
great



breakfasts, and within walking distance of lots of sights
and shopping



and the waterfront. My wife was *much* happier! We ate too
many meals at



Mabel's Lobster House, purportedly where President and
Mrs. George H.W.



Bush had many meals when he was healthier. Lobsters at the
dock were



about $2.50 a pound. I braved walking into the water at a
local beach



and got in about halfway up to my knees before the cold
chased me out. I



love the Maine coastline.







On the way back, we stayed at a B&B in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, to see



relatives and old friends. Nice enough place, but no match
for the Maine



Stay. No bugs.



That spot looks nice. I've always wanted to get down to
the Seashore Trolly Museum in that area. I was serious in
the summer of 2011 but after contacting the museum found
out that the main attraction for me (Birney Safety Car) was
judged too run down to put on display or even to fix up in
the immediate future.

The birney car was the only streetcar used in Halifax from
about 1921 until 1949..the year I was born.





Kennebunkport can get a little crowded with tourists (like
us), but when

we were there, in the height of the tourist season, it
wasn't that bad.

There's lots to see in that part of Maine. LL Bean isn't
that far away,

and it is worth a day's visit.



Yeah, that's what I want to see and do when I go to explore
somewhere,

shop and go to a mall.



If you've not traveled to Maine and seen the sights, you're
missing a lot. Kennebunkport is well

worth a stop, with campgrounds right outside of town (and at
least one, that we were in, allows

tents!). http://hemlockgrovecampground.com/photo-gallery



If you visit Kennebunkport and you *don't* visit the LLBean
store, then you're missing out on a

great treat.



I've been to Maine on two different occasions. I sure as hell
didn't

spend my time holed up in a hotel and shopping.



And you didn't visit the LLBean store?



No, I can buy LL Bean stuff from their catalog. I had better
things to

do than shop.



The LLBean store has much more than just shopping.



But, I understand your reluctance to engage in such a thing.





Care to enlighten me?



They have a lot of touristy things to get you there to shop.







First, the L.L. Bean flagship store ain't in Kennebunkport. The
flagship

store is huge, and there are other L.L. Bean stores in the same town,

including hunting, fishing, boating stores. If you like what the
stores

sell, the flagship store in Freeport is a great place to visit.



Second, it is a very large, very interesting store with lots of

displays and merchandise that isn't necessarily in the catalog.



Third, if you are interested in what L.L. Bean sells, and you still
have

questions, you can see the actual merchandise at the big store and ask

questions. Sure, you can also do this at any of the L.L. Bean retail

stores, but none of the retail stores has the variety of selection and

sizes on hand as the "home" store.



Fourth, visiting the flagship store of L.L. Bean is an interesting

experience.



I like the L.L. Bean stores. In fact, on our infrequent visits to

Northern Virginia, it is one of three stores there I'll waste time
in at

the big Tysons shopping mall while my wife shops. The other two are
the

Apple store and Restoration Hardware.

I have to get back to get my LL Bean Hunting boots re-soled.
I could mail them from here and get them back but at $45.00 for new
lower rubber portion and shipping both ways etc, it'd probably be
cheaper to just buy a new pair.
I've had the boots since 1993 and they still look great...although the
'chain' type traction patern on the soles has gotten mighty smooth.


I wonder what Krause finds so fascinating about Restoration Hardware.
Neither my wife or my wife were impressed with the one we were in two
weeks ago

Union shop??


Taste.

You got all caught up in the window dressing. I didn't know you were
into towels and bedding and foo foo stuff.

And here I thought there was some cool hardware store at Tyson's Mall that I'd not seen. You're
right, it's a bed bath and beyond place for tax cheats.